About The Artist

Hello! I am a fine arts painter, with a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. My primary painting medium is oil and alkyd, and mostly I work in a representational style. My greatest challenge as a painter is to capture the effect of light; and my greatest joy as a painter is to accomplish that. Many thanks to those readers who have been following this blog since Day 1 (May 19, 2008). To those who are visiting for the first time today...Welcome, and thanks for dropping by!

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Sunset Series #15 (Homage to Albert Pinkham Ryder) Original Painting: oil, alkyd on gessoed wood 6" x 1.5" SOLD
Albert Pinkham Ryder (American, 1847–1917) is one of those artists who defies easy categorization. His work is often described as moody, poetic, surreal, allegorical, and dreamy. Considered a "Tonalist"—an artist who relies on light and dark contrasts rather than color to describe form and distance—Ryder painted mostly landscape and seascapes. His work is also notable for the number of forgeries that have been done. It's estimated that over 1,000 fake Ryder paintings exist, in private as well as museum collections!

I've been a fan of ol' Albert since art school days. I find his work mysterious, even mystical, especially his Seacoast in Moonlight painted in 1890, which inspired my Sunset Series version posted on today's blog. Other famous works by Ryder are The Race Track (Death on a Pale Horse) and The Flying Dutchman.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

After working on last week's Georgia O'Keeffe inspired Sunset Strip, I got curious about sunset paintings by other well known artists. I happened to come across a painting by Winslow Homer called "Crossing the Pasture" (1871-1872) shown below.

Ironically, my favorite part of the painting was the distant sky, beyond the hills. So I "appropriated" that portion of Homer's painting, modified the shapes and colors, and tinged the far clouds with color to suggest the coming sunset.

It's interesting—and quite educational to copy the work of a great artist, even from a reproduction. Within even this small segment of the painting, there is a lot going on—color variations, light changes, and spatial dynamics—all happening in the background of this larger painting.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

I can't deny it. I've been a fan of Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings since I was a freshman in college, standing dumbstruck in front of "Black Cross, New Mexico" at the Art Institute of Chicago.

If you take a look at that painting, you'll see that I was still under its influence this week when I did this study. Sunset Strip #13, measuring 4" x 36" is currently in progress (a lot of blending to do). I'll share it with you when it's finished.